286 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1842, 



NEW YORK, 30th May, 1842. 



I have the pleasure to inform you that having ac- 

 cepted the offer from Harvard University of which I 

 apprised you in my letter of April 1, I was appointed 

 to the professorship on the 30th of April last. The in- 

 cessant occupation of this month has prevented me 

 from writing to you sooner, and still prevents me send- 

 ing anything beyond this hasty note. I hope in a week 

 or so to have my new text-book finished, when I shall 

 visit Cambridge to make the necessary arrangements 

 for my removal thither. I hope hereafter to be a use- 

 ful correspondent to you, in the way of supplying you 

 with seeds and living plants of our own country, and 

 when I see what can be done with our Garden I shall 

 probably ask you to aid us. I wish to visit the moun- 

 tains of Carolina again, in autumn, to procure roots 

 and seeds. . . . 



In the spring of 1842, as his last letter intimated, 

 Dr. Gray was appointed to the Fisher professorship 

 of natural history in Harvard College. He was then 

 thirty-one years old. He removed to Cambridge in 

 July, taking lodgings near the colleges at Deacon 

 Munroe's, on what is now James Street. 



Before Dr. Gray came to Cambridge he had been 

 elected into the American Academy (November 10, 

 1841). He threw himself with the greatest interest 

 into its work. Scarcely any winter storm kept him 

 from its meetings ; all other engagements had to give 

 way. And when new life began in its publications, 

 many of his most important papers appeared in its 

 volumes. 



He was also influential in establishing a scientific 

 club consisting of members of the college faculty and 



